Go to Olympic Section

Go to Sports Section

In Rating the TV Coverage, It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Twenty years ago, Faye Dunaway uttered a line in the movie "Network" that just as easily could have been the mantra for NBC Sports in its coverage of the Atlanta Olympics. "All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating," Dunaway, playing a neurotic TV executive, purred to William Holden, warning her colleague what their impending relationship might be like.

In many ways, NBC Sports executives were using the same rationale to justify their Olympic coverage philosophy during the past 17 days. Never mind the critics, the sports purists, all those people who preferred action to sappy features and national anthems other than the "Star-Spangled Banner."

We've seen the research, and we're sticking to the script, NBC insisted, and almost every day they cited huge ratings and audience share to anyone who dared question their methods.

Now the numbers are in, and like Dunaway, the broadcasters at 30 Rock got exactly what they wanted out of life—an average of a 21.6 rating and a 41 share of the audience over the past 2.5 weeks, a whopping 25 percent increase over Barcelona.

The ends clearly justified the means, and yet, I suspect most of us have had a love-hate relationship with these Games. We were watching in mega-numbers, but then again, we also had no choice, save for the local news and cable shows limited to only two minutes of action in each of only three newscasts a day. And so, we offer a sampling of things we loved about the Olympics on TV (and a little radio), and a few we hated, as well.

Love: Anything live, and particularly the coverage of Michael Johnson's historic 200- meter run Thursday night and the relays Saturday night, even without Carl Lewis.

Hate: Plausibly live, as in videotape presented as if it is live, without a disclaimer. So what if the research shows few people care? It's the right thing to do.

Love: The emergence of women's team sports in these Games, partly the result of Title IX legislation all those King Football schools have opposed for years.

Hate: The fact that NBC virtually ignored women's soccer and softball, giving us videotaped look-ins when live action, even in small doses, clearly was possible. NBC's miniscule goals-only coverage of Nigeria's historic men's soccer victory over Argentina also was inexcusable.

Love: Bob Costas, Greg Gumbel and even Jim Lampley and Hannah Storm in the anchor chairs. All kept hype to the minimum, asked reasonable questions during interviews and provided context to what viewers were about to see or had just witnessed.

Hate: "The Today Show," at least in the week before the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. It was gushy, mushy TV, essentially a two-hour all-American infomercial. They got back into the news and information mode post-bomb, but these Olympics were not their finest early morning hours.

Love: Coverage by ESPN. Despite not being a rights-holder, the all-sports network always seemed to have the big stars when it counted. George Michael blew away the local competition, with the great advantage of working for an NBC owned station, though we wish he'd learned some more names of foreign athletes.

Hate: Much of the official radio coverage, provided by Westwood One over WTEM. Many interviews used in the morning show were lifted directly off NBC, and they waved the American flag even more than their NBC corporate parent did on TV. It often had the sound of brainless sports talk, though we did appreciate hearing Tony Roberts, a former voice of the Washington Senators, on baseball play-by-play.

Love: Dive-cam and Rail-cam, two of NBC's technical innovations that gave viewers fabulous angles on the marquee events at the pool and Olympic Stadium.

Hate: All those tight closeups of sobbing athletes. These will forever be known as The Crying Games thanks to NBC and Tear-cam.

Love: Staying with live action for a good portion of Andre Agassi's gold medal tennis match, especially with bubbly Bud Collins handling play-by-play and Mary Carillo on the analysis.

Hate: Only highlights of Lindsay Davenport's women's gold medal match Friday, though they did show longer portions of action the next day. Also, NBC focusing frequently on Agassi's fiancee», one Brooke Shields, who just happens to have a new show coming up this fall on guess which network? We'll even spot you the N, B, and C.

Love: The 45-minute piece produced by Lisa Lax on the five American Olympians—Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Wilma Rudolph, Rafer Johnson and Muhammad Ali—from the 1960 Rome Games. It ran uninterrupted by commercials Sunday afternoon and ought to be repeated in prime time. Ali's appearance at halftime of the Dream Team's gold medal game to get a replacement gold medal for the one he either lost or threw into the Ohio River, depending on who you believe.

Hate: NBC's entire roster of new fall shows, judging from the endless promos. The IBM fencing commercial, which we now have commited to memory. The Nike ad that includes one athlete foaming at the mouth and ends with a bloody boxing mouthpiece flying through thin air.

Love: The women's Dream Team, and particularly NBC showing most of the final championship game victory over Brazil.

Hate: The men's Dream Team, an idea whose time is past. Even NBC, a proud "partner" of the NBA, left blowouts early. The argument that the rest of the world will eventually catch up is bogus. These guys could have won by 60 every night with a few months practice and an 11 p.m. curfew. Break it up and bring competition back to Olympic hoops, even if the U.S. might lose.

Love: The chance to get a life again after must Olympic viewing morning, noon, night and late night, weekends included. No more Bela!!!!

Hate: Four long years to Sydney.